Lockheed Martin Speeds 3 Orion Spacecraft for Artemis Missions, Adding 100 Jobs
Updated
Updated · Lockheed Martin · Nov 5
Lockheed Martin Speeds 3 Orion Spacecraft for Artemis Missions, Adding 100 Jobs
2 articles · Updated · Lockheed Martin · Nov 5
Summary
Lockheed Martin is accelerating delivery of Orion spacecraft for Artemis III, IV and V after NASA revised Artemis plans, with Artemis III targeted to launch next year and the next two vehicles already deep in production.
More than 100 new positions at Kennedy Space Center and round-the-clock three-shift, seven-day operations are being added to raise assembly capacity and keep critical spacecraft work moving.
The company is shifting Orion from a development model to a production model by trimming test scope after design qualification, reusing qualified hardware and preserving skilled teams between builds to cut time and cost.
At Michoud in Louisiana, Avcoat heat-shield output has risen from about four billets a week to more than 20, while suppliers are getting incentives, tooling support and alternate sourcing to ease component bottlenecks.
Lockheed says the push is meant to support a steadier lunar mission cadence, underpin NASA's Moon Base ambitions and build capability for eventual crewed missions to Mars.